TCL C835 65 QLED Review // Mini LED technology has come a long way!

Anyone who follows Oficina da Net has already realized that we really enjoy testing TCL TVs. Generally, entry-level models appear here, which is where TCL exchanges punches and even beats LG and Samsung TVs.

But how does the brand fare on top-of-the-line TVs? We have here the C835, with 65 inches and boasting a Mini Led panel, technology that promises to be even better than OLED panels. Let’s find out together if this is true.

TCL C835 REVIEW

Design and Construction

In technical specifications, this TV has everything to be incredible: it is a 65-inch Mini Led panel, 4K resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate.

The first thing I noticed when taking this TV out of the box was how heavy it is. Really, if you are going to put it on the wall, it is worth investing in a good quality support. She weighs approx. 30 kilos without the base, so make sure the VESA 400 by 400 mount you buy can handle that weight.

Despite the TV being large and heavy, the metal base manages to keep the TV firmly on top of the furniture. This is very important to us here in the studio as we were moving the TV from room to room several times during testing.

Appetizer

In the inputs we have an Ethernet port, 4 HDMI, two USB, an AV input, an RF input for antenna or cable, an optical audio output and 1 headphone output. I really liked that TCL named the inputs, so we know exactly which HDMI to use to get 144Hz, for example. Every brand should do this, it’s much better than chasing manuals.

Image quality

The TV is certified iMAX ENHANCED, ensuring color, resolution, brightness, contrast and even sound calibration. Put all this together with Dolby Vision and you’ll have an excellent experience watching movies and series.

In dark environments, we have an effect similar to that of OLED TVs: the black bars of the film disappear into the darkness of the room, giving the impression that we are watching on a movie screen. This effect occurs because the Mini Led backlight is turned off in the dark areas of the image – and since the panel has thousands of lighting zones, it is impossible to distinguish where the screen begins and ends.

Thanks to interpolation and frame upscaling, all the content you watch on TV ends up being much more fluid and beautiful. This is all done with artificial intelligence. Even when watching a 24-frame movie, the TV manages to greatly increase the fluidity of the image.

Viewing Angles/Reflection

Something that immediately caught my attention was that this TV has an excellent anti-glare system. It doesn’t quite work miracles – in a room with direct sunlight coming in it’s impossible not to see reflections, but I’d say the C835 does a good job of filtering out enough light that you can watch content without noticing too much, especially if you’re sitting down. straight to the TV.

I already recommended QLEDs for bright environments here, and this recommendation remains. The intense brightness of this TV overcomes any ambient brightness, a factor that is usually a weakness in OLEDs.

Another point where QLEDs evolved a lot was in the viewing angles. Now you no longer have to struggle to watch the TV at the straightest possible angle: anywhere in the room is fine. Back in the review of another QLED, Samsung’s QN85B, I also praised the viewing angles, so it’s cool that TCL is managing to keep up with Samsung in this regard.

screen settings

All the images that you are seeing from this TV were recorded with the settings in the factory default mode, which is the way we test TVs here on the channel. We have several image settings, in case you like to tinker with these things. It has image standards, such as Smart HDR, Sport, Film, but we can also change the Backlight, Saturation, Hue, Contrast, in short, I’m sure that in this menu you will find what you are looking for.

Dimming

Conventional LED panels use large bars of light at the corners of the screen to create backlight. This results in that “grayed out” image even when the screen should be completely black.

Instead of using large lamps on the sides of the TV to create the screen’s backlight, Mini LED technology works with thousands of small lamps spread across the panel, creating what they call “dimming zones”.

In practice, the main difference between the Mini LED and the conventional LCD is that we cannot even notice when the TV is on. In dark scenes, the TV can literally erase parts of the panel, giving those dark tones that we previously only saw in OLED-type panels.

Operational system

We have the same operating system running on this TV as other new TCL TVs, Google TV, which is the direct evolution of the popular Android TV. I hadn’t seen this new interface yet and I’ll tell you that I found it very beautiful and intuitive. You can feel that Google has optimized this operating system to the fullest: navigating between menus is instantaneous and applications open quickly, something that is kind of rare to see on Smart TVs these days.

Since this is Google’s own operating system, we have full integration with Android phones as well. I will admit that I tested this part a little, since this Smart Home thing does not suit me very much. So I just downloaded the app and synced it with my phone.

As

Another technological differential of the C835 is this subwoofer that is located at the back of the TV. Exactly, TCL went there, made a partnership with Onkyo and they stuck a big subwoofer in the very structure of the TV. I don’t know how necessary this is, as I believe most people who bought this TV also brought a hometheater or at least a soundbar with it. Even so, you can’t deny that this is the best built-in sound we have on a Smart TV today. I know it’s hard to understand listening to it on your cell phone, but check it out:

Games

This TV has a refresh rate of 120 Hz. That means it’s time to grab our NASA PC, pull an HDMI 2.1 cable, and play in 4K.

I’ll tell you that it’s hard to have a better game experience than this one. With a powerful gamer PC or a latest generation console, playing in 4K above 60 frames is a very beautiful thing to behold.

HDR10+ makes everything more cinematic, especially when the game needs to render light and dark scenes in the same scenario, with

If you’re looking for a TV to go with your latest generation console, you can go deep without fear on the C835, especially if you enjoy playing games with great fluidity and beautiful graphics.

Conclusion and Prices

This is a TV to be the main one in your living room: It will be excellent for watching football with several friends viewing it from different angles, watching a movie at night with all the lights off and also for playing on your Playstation 5 or last generation gamer PC .

But there is a problem: Smart TVs over 50 inches are very expensive in Brazil. If you want to take this C835 home, you’ll have to pay R$6,459 up front.

Where to buy?

• 
  R$ 6.299,99
  
  
  
  Smart TV 65 Polegadas TCL QLED 4K UHD Mini LED, HDMI, BlueTooth, USB, Wifi, FreeSync, Google TV – 65C835
  View deal
  
• 
  R$ 6.458,00
  
  
  
  Smart Tv Tcl 65 Qled Mini Led Uhd 4k 65c835 144hz Controle De Voz
  View deal
  
• 
  R$ 6.459,05
  
  
  
  Smart Tv 65 4K Qled Tcl 65C835 120Hz – Wi-Fi Bluetooth Google Assisten
  View deal
  

Among competitors, Samsung’s QN85B and QN90B come to mind, which are also great TVs with technologies very similar to this one. The problem continues to be price and availability: it’s hard to find them for sale in the 65-inch size, and when we do find them, they are between R$1,000 and R$1,500 more expensive than the C835.

At LG, we have the Nanocell Quantum Dot of 2022 which is currently priced very close to our TCL model. Both are QNED and have similar specs, but one is Quantum Dot and the other Mini LED, both are great, but I personally prefer the Mini LED.

Honestly, I have nothing but praise for TCL. They are consistently offering options as good or even better than other brands, often at less cost.

If you have any TV suggestions for analysis, leave them in the comments, we read them all. Thank you so much for watching, bye bye.